Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Every year, until now, I have been swooned by all things 'cutesy' Christmas. I wanted ribbons and bows and polka dots oh my! I had glitter and feathers and monograms galore. This year, however, I was completely caught off guard by my desire to go a more rustic, natural and home-made with my Christmas decor. I found these awesome little boxes at Hobby Lobby and it really got my little vision running!

I've been on maternity leave with my little guy and wanted to get the Christmas decorating done before I return to work next week. As we were putting up our tree Monday night I realized if I wanted to cut back on the cutesy I couldn't use half of my decorations from past years. This meant our tree was looking a little sparse. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and use some spare materials we had to make a few strands of garland, and I loved the way they turned out!

The first one I made was a strand of stars cut from old dictionary pages. I didn't use a template, but just free handed 3 different sizes of stars. I stacked them all up in varying order, and poked a hole right through the center of all 50 or so stars at one time with a large sewing needle. I used basic white thread on the needle to string them all together. I love the look!! It's so homemade and just perfect for our not so perfect house right now!

The second garland was made from chipboard letters and twine.

I ended up using smaller chipboard letters per hubby's request, which was a good call! I simply hot-glued the letters to the twine in no particular order. I left the letters unfinished to add to the natural (and simple) look. It took less than 20 minutes to make and put up on the tree.

In the end these garlands were incredibly simple and quick to make, and they ended up being exactly what my tree needed. All it took to spruce up the tree was a little cheap thinking outside of the box! What Christmas crafts can you make for free from your craft closet this year? It's certainly not too early to start getting creative this holiday season!